Introduction

Word of Thanks

The publication of this commentary on the book of Song of Songs is a good opportunity to express my great thanks to Jesus Christ, my Redeemer and Lord. In addition to my desire, He has also given me the opportunity to write a commentary about all the books of the Bible [in Dutch, my native language]. I see this as a great privilege and at the same time a great responsibility. It is up to the reader to examine the Scriptures to see if what is in the comments is in accordance with God’s thoughts (Acts 17:11). For the good that the reader discovers in it, the Lord Jesus deserves all honor.

I am also grateful to the Lord for the many who have been used by Him to contribute a comment. It is impossible for me to mention the names of those from whom I have received help in writing a comment. I cannot imagine a commentary, that could be written without the help of others. This help included, for example, a comprehensive explanation that someone wrote, which helped me to understand the text better. It may also be someone who has pointed out a detail to me with a suggestion for improvement. I am also grateful to all those who over the years have made publication in book and digital form possible. This also applies to those who helped in the translation of a commentary in a certain language.

The Lord has arranged things in the church in such a way that the members need each other to perform the task He has given each member. He will reward everyone who has made a contribution, in whatever form. In mentioning names, I could just forget someone, but He doesn’t forget one.

I would like to make one exception: my wife Willy. I am particularly grateful to the Lord for her contribution:
Dear Willy, you have received a great empathetic capacity from the Lord. You have an eye for the many details the Lord has given in life, which make life so colorful and meaningful. I don’t have an eye like that, but you have shown it to me by being who you are in your relationship with; the Lord, with me, with our children, in-laws and grandchildren, fellow believers, the people in the area where we live and in many encounters elsewhere. In those ways, you have made numerous contributions for the application of God’s Word in daily life, so that I have been able to incorporate these in the comments. I thank the Lord from the bottom of my heart for the unity He has made of us in our differences.

Foreword

The basis for this commentary about the Song of Songs are addresses that I was able to give in the period 2009-2013 in Schmalkalden, Germany. A first proposal for a topic for the addresses was marriage and relationships. Since I prefer a book of the Bible for a topic, I suggested to share thoughts about the book of the Song of Songs. This Bible book is excellent for making applications on marriage and relationships.

I must honestly say that I found it quite a daring venture to give addresses about this Bible book. Song of Songs is a poetic book and I am not very poetic. When we read this book, we may think: ‘Do we as husband and wife live together like this? Do we as husband and wife talk about and to each other as it happens in this book?’ I love my wife dearly and try to make her see and hear that in my own way. But that is somewhat different from what is described in this book.

Yet we have these manifestations of love in God’s Word. Therefore, it has something to say to us. It is also true of this book of the Bible, that it is inspired by God because it is “profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work” (2Tim 3:16-17).

This book is about love relationships, about relationships between husband and wife. We can apply that to our marriage. Much of it can also be applied to our family, and also to our relationships with our fellow believers, our brothers and sisters. From what we read in this book about love, we can therefore learn a lot about the way we look at each other, how we see each other and what we say to each other, in short, how we deal with each other.

Introduction

From Solomon we have three books in the Bible. Besides the book Song of Songs, he also wrote the Proverbs and the book of Ecclesiastes. In both books Solomon says something about a woman.

Solomon had a thousand wives (1Kgs 11:3), but the right wife, the wife with whom he could have a real relationship of love, was not there. He sought her ‘under the sun’, but had to come to the conclusion: “But I have not found a woman among all these” (Ecc 7:28). In Ecclesiastes life is only seen on a horizontal level. The preacher looks at and examines everything “under the sun” (Ecc 1:14). The conclusion of his research is that everything is vanity, empty. As long as a person seeks the fulfillment of his desires only under the sun – whether it be a woman or something else – his heart will find no true happiness. Solomon’s search for true love is therefore unsuccessful in the book of Ecclesiastes.

But then we hear from his mouth in the Proverbs: “An excellent wife, who can find?” (Pro 31:10a). Proverbs is the book where God’s light shines from the sanctuary on the way we go under the sun. In that book we hear something about what lives in Solomon’s heart about the woman he is looking for, how she should be. The answer to the question remains open, but his search has gained meaning because he now finds himself in the light of the sanctuary. He now knows what kind of wife he is looking for.

In the Song of Songs he has found her. Song of Songs is as it were the holy of holies, where the origin lies of the intimate relationship between the groom and the bride. Solomon is so happy that he has found her, that he writes a song about her.

The book describes the development of the feelings of love between Solomon and a girl, his bride, for whom he conceived love. It is a declaration of love by Solomon at the beginning of a relationship he builds up with the girl.

Young lovers write to each other. Once you are married, you live together and do not write to each other anymore. When my wife and I were still engaged, I did write letters to my fiancée. Some time ago, when my wife and I were talking about our letter writing during our engagement, she said she would like to have another letter from me. We had been married at that time for almost thirty-four years. I wrote her a letter about what she has meant to me all the time we have been married as a wife, as the mother of our children and as the grandmother of our grandchildren. I gave it to her on the same day we had been married for thirty-four years.

Women long for such expressions. It is good that a man regularly tells his wife what she means to him. Let him do that in his own way. It is also good when a wife asks her husband what she means to him.

It can also be added that it is good to tell our children and grandchildren from time to time that we love them and how happy we are that they belong to the family. We can make them feel that love too, for example, by taking the little ones on our laps and reading to them. We can make the older children and grandchildren feel this by showing interest in their study or plans. These are expressions that we may need to learn, but it is important that we regularly “declare” our love to them.

But the declaration of love is not the only meaning of Song of Songs. In the prophetic application, we see in Solomon a picture of the Lord Jesus, and in the bride a picture of Jerusalem – or the faithful remnant – and that especially in the end time, that is the time of the great tribulation. That Solomon is a picture of the Lord Jesus is indicated by the Lord Himself when He says of Himself: “And behold, something greater than Solomon is here” (Mt 12:42b).

In Song of Songs there are many things that make clear how the remnant as the bride and the Lord Jesus as the Bridegroom are led to each other. This means that we have a lot of prophecy in this book. It tells us something about future events.

In addition to its literal and prophetic meaning, the book has a third meaning, which is its practical or spiritual application for us. We can apply the beautiful content of Song of Songs to our personal life of faith, to our relationship with the Lord Jesus. By extension, there are also applications to the relationships in our marriages and families and the relationship with our fellow believers. In this commentary, the focus in the reflection on this ‘song of love’ is on these latter relationships.

The Song of Solomon

The first verse of the book shows that the Bible book Song of Songs was written by Solomon. Solomon has written more songs. We read that he even wrote “1,005” songs (1Kgs 4:32). Of all these songs – except perhaps Psalm 72 – as far as we know we do not have one in the Bible. But in the Song of Songs we have a long song by him in the Bible.

It is not just a song, a song of which only could be said it is a very good song. No, it is ‘the Song of Songs’, the highest song, the song that surpasses all other songs. In this song, the greatest Lover the world has ever known, sings of the most fervent love ever shown. In this song we hear the voice of the Lord Jesus speaking to the heart of His bride.

This song is so important to God, that He has incorporated it in His Word. It is His purpose that we will read this song with the greatest attention to get to know the feelings of His love for His people. If through this song our hearts begin to understand those feelings, it will help us express our love for Him.

Excellent Love

The song starts suddenly. Without any introduction we suddenly hear how the girl, the bride, expresses her longing for the love of the groom. She comes straight to the point, because she is so full of his love. She knows that love: it is an excellent love.

The girl doesn’t say who she is talking about, of whom her heart is so full. She first speaks in general, “he”, not to anyone personally. She longs for the groom’s intimate declarations of love. The kiss is an expression of intimate, personal love (cf. 1Sam 20:41). That much the bride longs for the affection of the groom.

No one can kiss two people at the same time. A kiss is an expression for one person. It is the expression of a personal, intimate love. This desire goes far beyond the ordinary desire for a proof of love. It is for us the starting point of true spiritual growth. If this great longing for the love of the Lord Jesus is not there, we will not understand what Solomon means by this song.

In the prophetic sense of the word we see in the faithful remnant of Israel this attitude of intense desire for declarations of love from the Messiah, the Bridegroom. The question of the remnant, the bride, is always whether He will accept her. She indeed speaks to Him, but more often about Him to others. The Bridegroom always only speaks to her. We will see how He wants to convince her of His love for her.

When we read the book Song of Songs, we notice that the bride is constantly looking for confirmation. She does not doubt his love, but she doubts his love for her. She desperately desires proofs of love from the groom, which will give her the certainty that he has accepted her. We see in her desire an uncertainty that we often see in Psalms. There is no established, lasting relationship yet. There are still doubts. Sometimes we hear her say she knows she is loved, but a little later the doubts return.

The assurance of faith, the assurance of the forgiveness of sins and acceptance by God will only be known and enjoyed by the remnant when they see the Lord Jesus at His return to earth. Then He will free them from all doubt and show them His love in a perfect way and let them enjoy it in the coming millennial kingdom of peace.

The new testament church as a whole, as well as the individual believer of the church, is not in such a relationship of uncertainty to Christ. It is not a question for the church and the individual believers whether He will accept them, for they know that they have been accepted. They rest in the work that He once and forever accomplished on Calvary. That is something that the remnant has to be convinced of in the future.

Yet even in this time, a believer can live in uncertainty when it comes to know whether his sins are forgiven and he is a child of God. This is the case when the law is taken as the norm for Christian life. The law cannot be accomplished by any human being, not even if one tries – as is said – to do it out of gratitude. Maybe that is the case in the life of one of the readers. Whoever has truly confessed his sins and believes God at His word that He forgives whosoever confesses his sins (1Jn 1:9), may know for sure that he is a child of God. Then there is no doubt.

In the second line of the verse the bride does turn to the groom. She has experienced the groom’s love declarations. His declarations of love transcend all earthly joys, of which wine is a picture (Jdg 9:13; Psa 104:15a). She yearns for this excellent love, because earthly joy is nothing compared to his love (cf. Psa 4:7).

For this bride the love of the groom was better than wine. It goes without saying that these expressions of love in our relationships put everything that can be bought with money into the shade. There was a man whose wife had left him. She couldn’t stand any longer to be with him. He had shouted it out to the Lord. When he told about it, he said: ’I don’t know what I did wrong. I gave her everything she wanted.’ In response, it was said that there is more than giving someone everything he or she wants. It is important that we reach the heart. You can’t buy love, you can’t just show your love through gifts. When I get something, the heart must become visible. Only then is love really better than wine. Then there is an inner joy.

Whoever has tasted that the Lord is kind (1Pet 2:3; Psa 34:8), knows that nothing ‘tastes better’ and will want to enjoy it more. The love of the Lord Jesus “surpasses knowledge” (Eph 3:19). Whoever desires more of earthly joy, than for His love has not yet understood and enjoyed His love.

In our relationship with our fellow brothers and sisters, proofs of love are also important. However, we must bear in mind that this must be done in a different way than in the marriage relationship and in a family context. There are brothers and sisters who yearn for a proof of love, so that their experience is that of being looked after, that attention is paid to them, that they are appreciated for who they are.

Nowadays, users of modern means of communication can also express or respond to their feelings via certain signs or icons. For young believers especially, traps lie here. Don’t get carried away in sending or replying to messages that stimulate your feelings. Such messages transcend the boundaries given by God. Preserve your expressions of love for him or her whom the Lord wants to give you or has given you. Expressions of love must always take place as God purposed them. In marriage and in the family, it happens in an intimate, tender way; in the mutual relationships between brothers and sisters, young and old, it happens in a sound, honorable way, without any ulterior motives.

An Oil Poured Forth

The bride then talks about the ointment oils with which the groom was anointed. She smells it. She loves the smell of it; it still hangs, as it were, in the air. His love, which is better than wine, is surrounded by the scent of a mixture of ointments. Wine as a picture of earthly joy, is replaced by the smell of oil. The oil speaks of the Holy Spirit (1Jn 2:20; 27).

The work of the Holy Spirit has become perfectly visible in the Lord Jesus, of Whom we read “how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and [how] He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him” (Acts 10:38). He spread a wonderful fragrance around Himself in everything He said and did.

The fruit of the Spirit consists of nine parts (Gal 5:22-23). Those parts together are like this mixture of ointment oils. When we read in the Gospels how the Lord Jesus went His way on earth, we see all aspects of the fruit of the Spirit in His whole action. Each part is expressed perfectly and in complete harmony with the other parts in everything He says and does. For all who know and enjoy His love, each verse in the Gospels spreads a full, wonderful scent of Him.

The Father knows and enjoys in a perfect way the composition of this ointment oil, that is the fruit of the Spirit, in the life of His Son. We can only smell or notice the wonderful smell of it per part, because “we know in part” (1Cor 13:9a), that is, “piece by piece”, little by little. It is not possible for us to fully fathom the glory of the Lord Jesus in its depths, as it is written: “No one knows the Son except the Father” (Mt 11:27a).

The mystery of His Person, that He is perfect God and perfect Man, remains hidden from us. We should not try to understand this (cf. Exo 30:31-33). But we can be impressed by the perfection of its individual parts as we admire Him for all He has shown us of Himself.

The Lord Jesus is the Anointed One. Everything that flows out of Him, all oils spread a pleasant fragrance, both for God and for people. People do not spread that scent (Jer 48:11). A single misplaced word or an inappropriate comment can immediately spoil the atmosphere. This was never the case with the Lord Jesus. Sin is an aroma to death. The fragrance of Christ in the gospel leads to life or to death (2Cor 2:15-16). What smell emanates from us?

Then the bride says: “Your name is [like] purified oil”, or better: “Your name is as ointment poured forth” (Darby Translation). Isn’t that beautiful? If I call the name of an animal, for example a lion, this is not just a name. When that name is mentioned, the image of the king of animals appears before our attention. When we think of the name of the Lord Jesus, what kind of image appears to our attention? His Name is an oil that is poured out, so that the whole expands and the surface is covered with oil. We can imagine that above this whole surface hangs a wonderful fragrance. In this way the knowledge of the name of the Lord Jesus will cover the earth, whereby each one knows another aspect or other aspects of that Name, and enjoys it and expresses his admiration for Him about it.

The pouring out also reminds us of the giving of His life, which He has poured out into death. That makes His name so great. Calling the name “Jesus”, the name He received at His birth, gives as fragrance that He came to save His people from their sins (Mt 1:21). It is the Name for Whom every knee will bow (Phil 2:10). To help us enjoy the scent of that name a little more, Isaiah pours out as an ‘oil stream’ some of His names that give a wonderful scent: “For a Child will be born to us, a Son will be given to us; … and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace” (Isa 9:6).

His name is “Wonderful”. Who can understand Who He is as God and Man in one person? Then His name is “Counselor”, for with Him is counsel and wisdom. He knows what He does, He knows what needs to be done. He knows our life. If we have questions and problems, we may ask Him for advice and He will give it (Psa 32:8). His name is also “Mighty God”. He not only says what we have to do, He not only shows us the way to go, but He also helps us to follow His advice. He oversees the whole, for He is the “Eternal Father”. His goal is to give us peace, for He is the “Prince of Peace”.

Do these names – and there are so many more names in Scripture, each with its own special scent – not give us, when we think about this, a pleasant scent, a scent in which we want to live as if in a pure atmosphere? If we live in that fragrance, it will be spiritually cling to our ‘clothes’, that is in our behavior. Everything in our life is permeated by it. Then the people around us will start to smell that smell as well. All around the believing, but carnal Jacob, hung the fragrance of the field. This was because he had put on the clothes of Esau (Gen 27:15-16; 27). If we behave like the world, the fragrance of the world hangs around us. That should not be the case.

The name of the groom is all sweetness for the bride. But she also has an eye for the fact that the value of that name also attracts the love of others. She talks about “the maidens” who love him for the same reason as she does. In prophetic application we can think of the cities of Judah, who like Jerusalem will love the Messiah.

The lesson for us is that we need to be aware that our love for the Lord Jesus is shared by others. Love rejoices in the Object of love and enjoys it when others also have that love. “Maidens” is also translated as “virgins”. By this is meant women and men who keep themselves free from the world to live only for the Lord Jesus (Rev 14:1-5; cf. 2Cor 11:2; Jam 4:4). They want it because they love Him.

Brought Into the Chambers

His love draws our hearts toward Him. The more we are engaged in His love for us, the more we will love Him. It makes no sense to be sitting in sackcloth and ashes regarding our lack of love for Him. It makes no sense in trying to stir up and intensify our love for Him. Instead, we must give up looking at ourselves and be engaged with Him. Thinking about our sluggishness and coldness does not help us to love Him more. If we notice slowness and coldness in our love for Him, we should confess it, and immediately afterward start thinking about His love for us. Then our hearts will get warm again. “We love, because He first loved us” (1Jn 4:19).

We feel that we are susceptible to things that take the place of our love for Him. That is why we feel the need for the fervent prayer, that He will draw us along with Him. This prayer is immediately followed by the heart’s intention to run after Him. We see this for example in the life of Paul. He knows he has been laid hold of by the Lord Jesus and then he says he is pressing onward to lay hold on Him (Phil 3:12-14).

It is a personal desire to be drawn: “Draw me.” But the desire to run and follow is a common desire, as we read here: “Let us run.” The desire that one has to be open to the working of God’s Spirit is the desire of more people. Paul ‘pressed on’ and those who love the Bridegroom ‘run’. Known and experienced love encourages the greatest possible effort to know Him and to be with Him.

When the eye and the heart are so focused on Him, we realize that the initiative lies with Him. He must draw. So it is already at conversion. This is what the Lord Jesus also says: “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him” (Jn 6:44a; cf. Jer 31:3; Hos 11:4). Thus we are rescued or drawn from the power of the world and of sins (Gal 1:3b-4). This does not take away the responsibility that calls on the sinner to turn back, but here we see God’s side.

For the believer it is the same. He is called to follow Christ. Whoever takes that call seriously also feels the need for the Lord to work it in him. That the call is really taken seriously is evident from the conscious choice to run after Him as well. The life-giving work of the Spirit in us and our commitment as believers are in harmony (cf. Hos 6:1-3).

When the bride has expressed the wish to be drawn, followed by the firm intention to run after the groom, she immediately sees the final goal of the road before her. She knows that he will bring her “into his chambers”. She already sees herself there together with him. His chambers are the inner, hidden rooms of the king (Psa 91:1). It is a place of intimate proximity. Here she calls him “king” for the first time. The relationship of love in which she stands to him is also a relationship in which she acknowledges that he is her lord (cf. Psa 45:11).

It is the same for us. The Lord Jesus really must be our Lord before we can know Him as a loving Bridegroom. We also know that He went to the Father’s house to prepare a place for us there. He comes back to take us up and bring us there (Jn 14:1-3), but through His Spirit we are already connected with Him there.

The awareness of her beloved’s love for her and the acknowledgment of his lordship elicit from her lips a call to rejoice. In a relationship of love and authority, of authority exercised in perfect love, lies the greatest possible safety and security. This can only result in joy and happiness. This is also the case with us in our relationship with the Lord Jesus. There is a deep joy because we know and love Him, and even more because He knows and loves us.

He is the Object of our joy, we rejoice in Him. Happiness without Him or a happiness that has another source, is trivial happiness, that flames up like straw in the fire for a while and then extinguishes without having given any warmth. Christ is the inexhaustible Source of joy and happiness. He is a Source that cannot be affected by anything that would diminish or even eliminate joy. The joy found in Him cannot be influenced by changing circumstances.

In the Father’s house we will drink continuously from that Source, rejoicing in Him eternally in a perfect, undisturbed manner. Already now, on earth, we are allowed to rejoice again and again (Phil 4:4; 1Thes 5:16). In the Father’s house we will, as we already do on earth, constantly remember His excellent love. We will never forget that love, that love that is “better than wine”, that is, the joy that His love gives, goes far beyond all earthly joys. We will talk about that love with the Father and the Son and with each other. That is fellowship that gives perfect joy: “And indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. These things we write, so that our joy may be made complete” (1Jn 1:3b-4).

In the last line of the verse, the bride assures the groom that the maidens “rightly” love him. If we love the Lord Jesus, it is right to do this, for His love gives every reason to do so. It is also important that our expressions of love are sincere, not hypocritical, and without ulterior motives.

Our expressions of love are weak. But if they are sincere, they are appreciated by Him. The bride sees this here with the maidens and she testifies to it toward her groom. Do we also have an eye for it when something is done out of love for the Lord Jesus? Or do we rather, or perhaps even only, see the wrong thing in what another person does? We must learn to appreciate what is being done in sincerity and also express this as encouragement.

Black but Lovely

After the bride was brought into the king’s chambers in the previous verse, she says something about herself. The sense of this privileged place does not make her proud, but humble. In what she says here, she addresses the “daughters of Jerusalem”. We will hear about them more often. We will see that the daughters of Jerusalem also include believers who love Christ but do not have as burning a love for Him as the bride has. They are also unable to understand the relationship the bride has, precisely because they do not have that burning love and do not know that intimate relationship. It is as if the bride justifies herself to them about her relationship with the groom and explains who she is to him.

She says that she is “black” (cf. Lam 4:7-8). She says that she realizes who she is by nature. This is an important aspect of our relationship with the Lord Jesus. When we speak of the relationship of love in which we stand to the Lord Jesus, we also have to be deeply aware that we are “black” in ourselves, which is sinful. Sin is still in us. “If we say we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1Jn 1:8). This does not make us depressed or discouraged, but the acknowledgment of this will turn our eye to the Lord Jesus, Who through His work on the cross has destroyed the power of sin for all who believe (Rom 6:6).

The bride immediately hereafter says that she is “lovely”. This is what she is in the eye of the groom. She knows that, despite the fact that she is looking for confirmation. We may know that through repentance and confession we have forgiveness of our sins. But beyond that, we may also know that God “has made us acceptable [as it also can be rendered] in the Beloved” (Eph 1:6).

Yet we may have moments or sometimes periods in our lives when this awareness is not so alive, that our feelings of gratitude have faded. Not that we have lost the assurance of our faith. That is not the case, but the danger is present, that our assurance makes us somewhat indifferent. We know it so well, that it doesn’t amaze us anymore and that we don’t wonder anymore about what the Lord Jesus did to and for us and how God sees us now. The first fire of love for the Lord Jesus is extinguished.

When the bride says “I am black”, it expresses a deep conviction that each child of God must have. The words that immediately follow, “but lovely”, do not take away this conviction, but only increase the wonder of being lovely. This means for us the awareness that God looks at us in His Son and that we are children of God.

If we understand both sides with our heart, we will remain fervent in our love for the Lord Jesus. If we forget one of both sides or place a disproportionate emphasis on one of both sides, our faith life loses its stability. We will, also depending on our character, fall into legalism on the one hand or carnal freedom and even liberality on the other hand.

Then the bride uses two comparisons, which are an illustration of what she has just said about herself. She is “like the tents of Kedar” and also “like the curtains of Solomon”. Kedar is an area outside of Israel. It points to a place outside the blessing of God. The remnant that in the future, during the great tribulation, will have been driven out of the land and fled abroad, complains: “Woe is me, ... for I dwell among the tents of Kedar!” (Psa 120:5). Kedar’s tents are black. So we also live on earth, in a world that lies in evil, where it is black with sin. This includes the black of our sinful nature. But through faith we may know that sin within us has been judged by the judgment that Christ underwent on the cross.

As a result, we are clothed with the righteousness of God in Christ. We see that in the second comparison, that of “the curtains of Solomon”. We can think of the radiant white curtains in the palace of Solomon. We may know that we have put on Christ and that we have been made pleasant in Him before God.

When we think about what we were and what we have become now, we will say with the Psalmist: “Who remembered us in our low estate, for His lovingkindness is everlasting” (Psa 136:23). We owe it all to His lovingkindness. We will then be like Mary, who sang, when she was told that she would become the mother of the Lord Jesus: “My soul exalts the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. For He has had regard for the humble state of His bondslave” (Lk 1:46-48).

Just as the insignificant girl from Shulam, the shepherdess, became the object of the love of the great king Solomon, so it went with us. We were by nature corrupt, lost, unworthy, rebellious creatures, but we are now connected in the most intimate way with the almighty God, the eternal Son. We are the objects of His love and share in the consequences of His work. We share in His place in heaven, and we share in His reign over heaven and earth. Doesn’t it become, the longer we think about it and the better we get to know ourselves, an ever greater wonder?

There is another practical comment to be made about the fact that there is a relationship of love between a countryside girl and a powerful king. There is a huge difference between Solomon and the bride in education, wisdom and wealth. Yet they are attracted to each other and long for each other. Similarly, two young people may today be brought together by the Lord, although there are great social and intellectual differences between them. The question is whether there is real love, because real love transcends and bridges such differences. A feeling of love, infatuation, is not a basis. It is about Divine love, because only Divine love can refrain from things that would be an obstacle in all other cases.

Accountability and Failure

What the bride says in the previous verse about her being black, she says from her own feelings about it. It means the acknowledgment that she herself is sinful. That is an important consciousness. Now she talks again about her being “swarthy” or black, but this time she does so to others. She says the others shouldn’t blame her because she is black. Her frankness about her past must not lead to her being looked down on. She can’t do anything about being swarthy, since the cause is the hot rays of the sun. She was exposed to this because her brothers forced her to guard the vineyards. She asks for understanding and acceptance despite what she is.

One lesson for us is that we should not look down on others when they have told something of their past. Even worse is, when we throw at someone what a bad man he is, while he has repented of his sins and confessed them. We must look at each other in the way the Lord Jesus looks at us. We know that we are also swarthy, sinful in ourselves. It can happen that this blackness becomes visible again because someone sinned. Then we should talk about it, not with others, but with the person concerned.

Here however, it is a matter of reminding another person of his past subtly, or perhaps harshly, because the other person is bothering us. Then we ourselves do not live in fellowship with the Lord Jesus, in the awareness of our own sinfulness. When we forget what the Lord Jesus did for us on the cross, we also forget that He did so for that other person. We may and must say of ourselves that we are the foremost sinner, as Paul did (1Tim 1:15).

It is not about measuring the number of sins or the severity of them, but about the awareness of one’s own evil. No one knows better than myself of all my many and dirty sins, doesn’t it? If we are convinced of this, satan will not have the opportunity to take away our peace by reminding us of the sins we have committed.

There was a man who found it difficult to accept that his sins were gone. He kept staring at his sinfulness. Satan was successful with him by reminding him of his sins. He always thought: ‘I’m so bad. My sins are so great.’ He once talked about it with an evangelist. The evangelist said to the man, who was really in great need of conscience: ’But we have a great God, “for He will abundantly pardon” (Isa 55:7). He throws all our sins behind His back (Isa 38:17). ‘Yes’, the man replied, ‘but when He turns around, He sees them again.’

The evangelist then pointed out to him that the Bible also states that He throws all the sins “into the depths of the sea” (Mic 7:19). ‘Yes’, the man objected again, ‘but it also says in the Scriptures that there will come a time when the sea will dry up, and then He will see the sins again.’ Then the evangelist said: ‘But it is also written that God will remember the sins no more’ (Heb 8:12). Then the man gave in and found peace.

It is great to be aware of the fact that God remembers sins no more. This of course only applies if they have been confessed before Him with sincere repentance. He is the only One Who can consciously forget something. When we forget something, it is weakness, a limitation of our ability to remember things. We can say something like: ‘I don’t think about it anymore’, but at the same time as we say this, we are thinking about it very consciously. But God is able to consciously not think about anything anymore, that He doesn’t remember the sins and doesn’t hold them up to us anymore, because they are gone.

So we can say the following:
1. God no longer holds our sins up to us, for He no longer thinks of them.
2. Satan has no right at all to point out our sins and make our conscience trouble, because before God our sins no longer exist.
3. In view of these two facts, we should not remind a child of God of his or her past, for everything about this has been arranged by God on the basis of the work of His Son on the cross.

After the Shulammite asked that she be not blamed for her blackness, she explained how her brothers had treated her. It is as if she is motivating her question not to blame her for her blackness. It shows how sensible she is for her surroundings. She feels misunderstood, both by the daughters of Jerusalem and by her brothers. She has a closer relationship with her brothers than with the daughters of Jerusalem. What they have done to her also hurts her more.

She doesn’t call her brothers ‘my father’s sons’, but “my mother’s sons”. That recalls the common position, that of grace (Gal 4:26-28). They share the position, but their practice is different. The brothers are not going through the same development as the bride.

She says of her brothers that they had become angry with her. She doesn’t say why that was. One possibility may be that they were jealous of her, their simple sister, because of her close relationship with king Solomon. We see something similar with Joseph’s brothers, who were also jealous because Joseph made Jacob’s heart glad. The brothers of the Shulammite sent her away with a commission. These brothers apparently had the power to do so. The brothers are much stronger than the girl. They have forced her to take care of the vineyards.

We can make an application here regarding our families. In families with children, it can happen that some children have some kind of power over another child. It is good that parents keep an eye on how their children interact with each other. Do they accept each other or do they want to use each other? Is there anyone – perhaps the oldest or the strongest or the brightest – who manipulates another member of the family by abusing his or her force majeure to allow the other to do something that benefits him or her?

It is important that we as parents ensure that the children only receive their assignments from us as parents. Parents are responsible for what their children do for as long as they are dependent, until they can take care of themselves.

The above is also important in the church, which consists of stronger and weaker personalities. We must be careful that the stronger personalities do not rule over the weaker ones and determine what they do. That is why it is good to ask ourselves: How do I behave toward my brother or sister? Do I really serve them, without demanding or even manipulating them?

So the brothers have sent their sister away as a caretaker of the vineyards. How she carried out this task is not mentioned. She does say of herself that she has not taken care of her own vineyard. Here we see the case where someone is forced to do something and therefore fails to meet what should have happened first and foremost. An obligation to work for others may result in forgetting responsibility for one’s own work.

In connection with the application to our families, we can learn here that we must give our children tasks that they can carry out, for which they have the strength and the capacities. We will therefore take into account a child’s age and ability when we give him an assignment. The same applies to the church. Again, we should ask of someone only what he or she are capable of doing, which matches his or her talents and does not go beyond them.

It may happen that we are very busy – in our opinion, of course, with good things – but that our activities are at the expense of our first responsibility. For example, fathers should be fathers in the first place and not workaholics. They should not leave the responsibility of fatherhood to their wives. Mothers should be mothers, not career hunters. It is about setting the right priorities. The taking care of their own vineyard, their own family, must happen first. Our boss may ask a lot of us and if we are our own boss, we may ask a lot of ourselves. But that does not mean that we should neglect our family.

Someone once said that some of his children did not follow the Lord. He said he had had a period in his life during which he was completely absorbed in his work. Late in the evening he came home, slept, got up early and left again. He hardly saw his children, nor did his children see him. It was precisely at a time when these children were making important life decisions, when they needed their father’s attention and conversation with him. He now regrets that very much. Let it be a warning for anyone who recognizes it.

What does it mean to take care of the “own vineyard”? It means that we have an area that has been given to us by the Lord Jesus to work for Him. His purpose is that we should produce fruit for Him in that area. The vineyard speaks of joy. He wants us to deal with what He has given us in such a way that it makes Him happy. Families, but also churches, are areas where we all have a responsibility. If we are aware of this responsibility and meet it, it will rejoice both God’s heart and ours.

It is important that we take care of that area. To take care of means that we have to do with an enemy. We must be constantly on our guard against his attacks. In the next chapter we read about foxes who are trying to spoil the vineyard, with the bride’s question: “Catch the foxes for us” (Song 2:15). But here it is about the fact that we have a responsibility to protect our vineyard.

Where Do You Pasture the Flock?

Now the bride addresses the groom. She turns to him after her own failure in her work. This is what the Lord wants us to do when we have failed. Then we shouldn’t give up in self-pity, but go to Him. She turns to the groom as someone whom she knows and deeply loves. The appeal of love is greater than the dejection caused by failure. Our failure can never be greater than the love of Christ. We should always bear this in mind.

Peter also experienced this. The Lord Jesus speaks of his failure in advance, but He says that He prayed for him that his faith might not fail (Lk 22:31-32). Whoever loves the Lord wholeheartedly is saddened by his own failures, but is also convinced of the love of the Lord Who never writes off a failing disciple, but always gives him a fresh chance.

The bride’s failure brings her back to the one she loves so much to be in his company again. She realizes that she needs food and rest. It is exhausting to do work in which the Lord Jesus is not involved. When we experience that, we feel hunger and long for rest. This is the order: first food and then rest (cf. Eze 34:15). A hungry sheep will not rest until it has found something to satisfy its hunger.

Only the Lord Jesus can give us food that satisfies our spiritual hunger and gives us the strength to live in fellowship with Him and for Him. That food is in fact He Himself. We feed on Him when we read God’s Word, because that speaks all about Him (Jn 5:39). Then we also get rest for our souls. It is important to start the day with food from the Word of God. When it is noon then, when the sun is at its hottest, i.e. when the circumstances of life become difficult (Mt 13:6; 21), we will be able to continue our way in the power of this food (1Kgs 19:5-8).

Just a practical application. If we have lunch break at work around noon, what do we do? Are there possibilities to read something from the Word of God? Or are we constantly busy? I know of a representative who was always busy. He had to meet his target number of sales. He was busy with that. When he had visited some customers and it was time to have something to eat, he drove to a quiet place to eat his bread. As he ate his bread, he thought about how the conversations with the customers had gone that morning and how he would handle the following conversations instead of unwinding by reading something from the Word of God. It will not apply to everyone, not even to every break, but are we at the very least trying, if the possibilities are there, to use a break in this way?

To the bride the important point is to be at the place where He pastures the flock and where He makes it lie down at noon. She seeks the personal relationship with him. This is an important example for us. Nothing is more important than a personal and living relationship with the Lord Jesus. We belong to His flock, we are together with other believers who also follow Him, but we do not go up into the mass. If we are looking for the flock, it is to be with Him. We do not follow a group and do not derive our identity from it, but we follow Him with Whom each of us has an own relationship. The good Shepherd knows every sheep of His flock “by name” (Jn 10:3).

The bride doesn’t want to get lost in the mass and walk around there like one who veils herself. She should take that place if she were to join ‘the flocks of your companions’, which are flocks other than his. With this she says that her personal relationship with him cannot run through others. We see an illustration of this in professing Christianity. Therein are companies of people who follow human leaders. These are leaders who are working for the Lord, but the sheep still gather around themselves. They take the place of ‘mediator’ between the people of God and God Himself. Such leaders speak of ‘my church’, whereas only the Lord Jesus can say so.

We can only grow spiritually if we have a personal relationship with the Lord Jesus. If we listen to God’s Word, what is it saying to us? Is it important to us who says it and how it is said? Or are we really open to what God has to say to us? The norm of our judgment must be whether the things that are said strengthen our relationship with the Lord Jesus. The preacher disappears, but Christ remains.

We see this with the eunuch in Acts 8. The evangelist Philip taught him the Word of God and baptized him. Then Philip disappears. We do not read that the eunuch was sadly left behind because his teacher was gone now, but the contrary: he went on his way rejoicing (Acts 8:26-39). Every preacher who has been called by the Lord to serve with God’s Word, does not want anything else than that the one he has served with God’s Word, goes his way with joy in fellowship with the Lord. We should not be content with men, whoever he is, but only with the Lord. That is what we can learn from the bride here.

Go Forth on the Trail of the Flock

The groom immediately answers the bride’s question, where he pastures the flock. His first words are: “If you yourself do not know.” Therein lies a soft reproach. It sounds like she could have known. If this gentle reproach could possibly be misunderstood by the bride and taken as rejection, his following words make it clear that there is no such thing. He calls her the “most beautiful among women”. That means that he tells her how special she is to him. Although he has to make her a gentle reproach, he appreciates that she comes to him with her question.

The Lord Jesus also sometimes has to reproach us gently for things we ask for, but for which we should have known the answer (cf. Jn 14:8-9; cf. Heb 5:11-14). At the same time, He appreciates that we come to Him with our questions and He answers them. He does not reject us.

We can apply this to the situation in which our children come to us with questions, including questions to which they should already know the answer. How do we react? Do we then react, for example, as follows: ‘Why do you ask that, silly? I told you that already, didn’t I?’ A child may have forgotten something. If that is the case, we should not outcry against the child.

We must not forget that we ourselves are also constantly educated by the Lord. We are all at the school of life, both parents and children. The same can be said of young people in the church. How do we as elderly people deal with them? Do we have patience to explain certain things more often, as often as they need it?

The bride is told to follow the trail of the flock to see where he pastures the flock and makes it lay down. The word “follow” is literally “go out”. So she gets the assignment to go out, to go outside to follow the trail. It means she was in a place she had to leave, where she didn’t belong. There is distance between her and the groom. To get to him she must first leave the area where she is. She moved in a different world from the one in which he pastured the flock. When she leaves, she can follow others who belong to him.

The same applies to us. If, spiritually, we are in a place where we don’t belong, where we miss the Lord Jesus, where He can’t be, then we might ask Him where He is. Then He will tell us to leave that area. This can relate to the comfort with which we have surrounded ourselves. It can also mean that we have to let go of human traditions, because they stifle our faith life. It also means that we must leave a community that has become a human system, which means that not God’s Word is decisive, but what people consider to be good (Heb 13:13).

Then He says we have to follow the sheep’s trails. By ‘the sheep’ believers are meant (Jn 10:27; Jn 21:17). The sheep in question are sheep that are in the truth about the church and live according to it. Many believers today are sheep, but they have no ‘flock consciousness’. They have no idea that they belong to the one flock of the one Shepherd. This is shown by the fact that they have no awareness of the church of Christ to which all believers belong. They believe that they should be a member of this or that church or group and they have no regard for the fact that there is for God only “one flock”, to which all true believers belong, with “one Shepherd”, the Lord Jesus (Jn 10:16).

The bride can follow the groom’s sheep by following the “trails” they left behind. The ‘trails’ are the foot prints of those who have gone out before. ‘Trails’ also speak of movement and progress. Anyone looking for this should follow the same path and take the same actions. So it is not about taking a new road, but about following ancient trails or paths (Jer 6:16) that have been there for a long time. They are there “from the beginning” (1Jn 1:1). We can think back to the truths of the church and its gathering, because these words “were spoken beforehand by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Jude 1:17; cf. 2Pet 3:2).

It is about words that “were spoken beforehand”. This refers to the words of Scripture. We have everything we need in the Bible. There is no need to invent new things. When we have questions about coming together with the Lord, it is not about inventing something new. This does not mean that we could not experience the coming together in any other way. It is good to think about how our enthusiasm for the Lord can increase and how it can be expressed. Whoever desires to be with the Lord Jesus will make sure that being together around Him does not become a routine, but he will want to honor Him from the bottom of his heart time and again.

Sometimes it is predictable how a meeting, a prayer or a speech will go. Then the question is justified whether the Spirit can really work and make hearts fervent for Christ. If these predictable situations occur frequently, it will be good to pray the Lord together that He points out what we need to change to really experience His presence again. After all, we want to be with Him, don’t we?

To be truly with Him means to be impressed by Who He is. When something is read from the Word of God, we will be aware that God speaks. We will respond, either loud or in our hearts: ‘God speaks to me!’ We will be open to what He has to say. The Word will be alive and powerful for us and work within us. In this way there is a living relationship with the Lord.

We all react differently to the Word. Older people do this differently from young people. Everyone does it in their own way. There is no particular language, a jargon that one must first know to thank the Lord or to ask Him anything. Any believer may speak to the Lord in the same way as he speaks to others. The intonation may also remain the same. We don’t have to change our voice suddenly when we read something from God’s Word or pray out loud.

Every believer, old or young, may be himself with the Lord. We are all unique to Him and to each other. Every child the Lord has given us in our families and every member of the church has his own development and must be given room for it. It is about a new enthusiasm in life with the Lord. This life develops on trails that have been there for a long time. The trails are fixed, because the Word is fixed.

The groom then gives the bride a task: she has to pasture her goats “near the shepherds’ homes”. She herself is a sheep that is put by the groom on the way of the other sheep, a way that leads to him. Here she is told that she has to do her work as a shepherdess of goats near the homes of his shepherds.

We can apply these houses to the local churches. There are the shepherds of the Lord Jesus who do their work as His under-shepherds (1Pet 5:1-4). All those who are looking for a new experience of their dealings with the Lord Jesus can learn of these shepherds how to live this out in the local church. It is about dealing with each other, accepting each other and learning from each other. The shepherds’ homes are places where we are stimulated in our relationship with the Lord Jesus, where it is further developed or revived.

Mare Among the Chariots of Pharaoh

The groom calls the bride here for the first time “my darling” or “my friend”. That applies to the confidential relationship between them. With a friend you share intimate things that you don’t share with everyone. This is only possible if there is an atmosphere of complete trust and security. The Lord Jesus also calls His disciples His friends and He connects His safekeeping and protection with it (Lk 12:4). He mentions elsewhere another condition to be called a “friend” by Him and to receive His intimate announcements: that is that the disciple does what He commands (Jn 15:14).

Then the groom compares his bride with a mare. At first hearing, this does not immediately sound flattering to us, Westerners, within a relationship of love. We don’t easily hear a man say of his wife that she looks like a mare. The groom says so here. He adds that she is one among other mares and that they together are meant to pull the chariots of Pharaoh. So the mares came from Egypt (cf. 1Kgs 10:28; 2Chr 1:16; 2Chr 9:28). They must have been beautiful and well-trained mares, real showpieces. They were used to pull the beautiful chariots of Pharaoh to show his majesty wherever they went.

As believers, we should all be such ‘showpieces’ of our Lord Jesus, carrying Him along in the ‘chariots’ of our life. We should show Him in our life, so that therein His majesty becomes visible and all the light of our lives falls upon Him. He says here that we are so for Him. This means He can glorify Himself through us. We know of ourselves that we realize this very weakly in our lives. Yet He sees in us the desire to glorify Him. We would like to show the people around us what He means to us, what He has become to us through His work on the cross. He freed us from the power of sin and bought us for Himself. We are now totally His.

As said, the groom speaks of mares in plural. We can imagine that it is important if there are several mares pulling a chariot, that these mares all run in the same gallop and at the same speed. It shows that not only individually, but also together we magnify the Lord Jesus. A common testimony has great power in the world. If everyone is personally full of the glory of the Lord Jesus, quarrels will not have the opportunity to mar this worthy testimony.

The mare obeys the reins of the master and she gives her strength in his service. Thus, the Holy Spirit, so to speak, wants to hold the reins of our personal and communal life in His hands. Then the Lord Jesus sees in the lives of those who love Him that they are completely at His disposal to take Him where He wants to go. Thus we are useful for the Master. It is about giving our strength in His service, in dependence on the guidance of the Holy Spirit on the path He is showing us.

The result is a walk in peace and unity with others, just as the mares all kept pace. That is an impressive sight, just as the chariots of Pharaoh must have been beautiful floats, floats that reflected his greatness.

Cheeks and Neck of the Bride

After comparing the stature of the bride with a mare of Pharaoh, the groom talks about the cheeks and neck of the bride. In the course of the book we hear him speak about several parts of her body. The bride, in turn, speaks several times about various parts of the body of the groom. Love sees not only the figure, but also the details. Each part of the body has charm. That charm is represented by comparing that part of the body, with jewelry or other things that bring brilliance in a special way, to the value or the meaning of that part of the body.

The first part of the body that the groom mentions are the cheeks. Cheeks have to do with reviling and mockery, and to undergo them without defending oneself (Isa 50:6; Mt 5:39). The groom sees that her brothers reviled her. The reviling does not tarnish her, but makes her all the more charming for him. The same goes for the reviling inflicted on believers for the sake of the Lord Jesus. That reviling is sweet to Him.

The reviling done to the bride is seen by the groom as surrounded by graceful “ornaments” or “ornamental chains”. He places a frame around her reviling, as it were. With this he encourages her. In the same way, the apostle Peter encourages the faithful who are reviled for the name of Christ. He surrounds the reviling inflicted on them with a brilliance of glory: “If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you” (1Pet 4:14). The reviling brings about the brilliance of the Spirit of glory.

Suffering “for the name of Christ” emphasizes the connection with Him. To be reviled for His Name is the direct consequence of coming out for Him in word and deed. The world sees in the believer the representative of Christ, Who Himself when He was on earth was the great Representative of God. Because of this He experienced: “And the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me” (Psa 69:9b). This was no dishonor to Him and also for us it is no dishonor when we are reviled for His Name. Peter even says that we are “blessed” when it happens.

We can also compare the chains with prayer. We sometimes speak of a ‘prayer chain’. By this we mean that a number of believers agree to pray continuously for a certain cause, each committing himself to do so for a certain period of time, after which another continues for a certain period of time. The need for a ‘prayer chain’ is particularly felt in a time of reviling and oppression. Reviling or oppression that drives out into constant prayer is of special value to the Lord Jesus. Our lives should be a chain of prayer. We can only endure reviling if we are constantly praying (cf. Psa 109:4).

The neck speaks of rigidity, that is, of the sinner’s refusal to bow before God and acknowledge Him as God. It indicates unwillingness to serve God and the neighbor. When the wall around Jerusalem is rebuilt, we read of the nobles of Tekoa, as it literally is said in Hebrew: “They did not bring their necks to the work of their masters” (Neh 3:5). They did not want to serve. But the bride’s neck has bowed before the groom. She wants to be there for him. That’s why her neck is lovely now. Her neck is no longer a body part that radiates rigidity, but is of beauty and value.

The “strings of beads” or the pearls around her neck can be connected to what Solomon says to his son (Pro 1:8-9). He speaks of “the father’s instruction” and “your mother’s teaching” which are like a chain around the neck when listened to. For us who, through faith in the Lord Jesus, have become sons of God, it means that it will adorn us if we listen to exhortation and show willingness to learn. We then show that we no longer want to live for ourselves, but that we have bowed our necks to what God has to say.

The Lord Jesus appreciates it when we not only say that we love Him, but also show this in practice by listening to instruction and teaching. When we see someone living in accordance with the Word of God, we respect and appreciate it. A life in dependence on the Beloved is an ornament whose value is fully known by the Lord Jesus. It is a life that resembles His life. He always listened. Every morning His ear was open to His God and He received Divine instruction (Isa 50:4). His life was totally free from own will and therefore it was like beautiful strings of beads for the Father.

Ornaments for the Bride

Here we hear that the groom promises something to his bride. He showed her how valuable she is to him. In his description he made comparisons with valuable materials. She is already beautiful, but now he is going to add to what he found in and to her, ornaments or golden chains he made himself. Here we see his commitment to his bride.

However, he does not say in the singular ‘I will ... make’, but in the plural “we will make”. Here we recognize in the speech of the groom the speech of the Lord Jesus. We listen to His purpose to make His bride even more beautiful. When the Lord Jesus speaks, we always hear the triune God speak (cf. Jn 3:11). The ‘we’ can be understood as a Divine plural: Father, Son and Holy Spirit are at work. They are decorating the bride with “golden chains”. Gold speaks of divine glory. They are also busy applying “beads of silver” to the bride. Silver speaks of salvation and reconciliation and the price paid for it.

A chain is a series of separate links that together form the chain. The Holy Spirit decorates us with a beautiful golden chain when He says to us through Paul: “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to [His] purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined [to become] conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified” (Rom 8:28-30).

Do we see the chain?
Link 1: We are called according to His purpose.
Link 2: We are foreknown.
Link 3: We are predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son.
Link 4: We are called.
Link 5: We are justified.
Link 6: We are glorified.

Isn’t that a beautiful chain? It is a series of blessings that is strung together like a chain and given to us by God. We can wear this ornament in our hearts and think about it in our hearts, so that we will increasingly appreciate and praise this gift. What He gives us is always something of Himself, of His glory. With that He clothes us and by that His glory is reflected by us.

We also see the beads of silver. We will never forget that all that God has given us, that whole chain of glories, is based on the redemption through the blood of Christ, His Son. Everything is connected with the work of redemption of Christ on the cross. Whatever glory ‘that has been put on us’ we admire, we will always see that that glory is also due to what Christ has done for us. We have done nothing, but we owe everything to Him.

The Nard of the Bride

Here we hear the bride speak again. She responds to what her beloved has said in the preceding verses. She is at rest at the king’s table. It is not just a table, but a festive table that is richly set with the tastiest flour and meat dishes (1Kgs 4:22-23). But the most special thing about this table is that the king himself is sitting on it. All the delicacies on the king’s table would have no meaning if he were not at the table.

This scene points out to us the Lord Jesus and the fellowship with Him. A table speaks of fellowship. Here it is not so much about what is on the table, but about the fact that it is “His table”. Nor is this primarily an application to the Lord’s Table, where His Supper is celebrated. This happens when we meet as a church. But here, in picture, it is about experiencing the constant fellowship with the Lord Jesus. The fact that this is a continuous fellowship is expressed by the “round table”, as it literally says. What is round is without beginning and without end. The fellowship that we may experience with the Lord Jesus is, by its nature, eternal, because He is eternal.

When the bride comes to the king’s table, she has her own perfume, “my perfume” which literally is “my nard”, with her. “While” she is together with the king at his table, the smell of her nard fills the dining room. We automatically think of Mary of Bethany, of whom we read: “Mary then took a pound of very costly perfume of pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume” (Jn 12:3).

Spreading the scent of the perfume of nard is a picture of worship. We can understand that. Isn’t it an unprecedented privilege for us, who formerly had no part in anything and were on our way to hell, now are allowed to be ‘at the table’ with the Most High? He has delivered us from our misery and given us that high place of fellowship with Himself. We should always think about that. It is not for nothing that the Lord Jesus links the anointing by Mary to the preaching of the gospel (Mt 26:13). It shows that whoever is saved from his sins becomes a worshiper of God and of the Lord Jesus.

When we apply this to the coming together as a church at the Lord’s Table, what the bride and Mary have done is an encouragement for us to prepare for the meeting with Him (cf. Deu 16:16-17). Mary has saved for her nard. The cost of this ointment was three hundred denarii. Converted, this is roughly the annual salary of an employee – one denarius is a daily salary (Mt 20:2). Mary has long been busy preparing for her deed, which received so much appreciation from the Savior.

A Pouch of Myrrh

The bride spreads the fragrance of the nard in the presence of the king (Song 1:12), because he is her “beloved”. He is her all and all. This short Song 1:13 contains three times the words “me” or “my”, which makes her statements very personal. She describes what he is for her. He is primarily for her “a pouch of myrrh”. Myrrh is a pleasantly fragrant resin and can have a bitter, but also a sweet taste. Myrrh is extracted from different species of trees and is obtained by incisions in those trees. So the tree is injured. At high desert temperatures, the softened resin seeps out automatically. In the time of the Bible, myrrh was a symbol of suffering and death.

What the bride says applies to our connection with the Lord Jesus. Is not our worship – of which the nard speaks – raised in a special way when we think of His suffering and death? He is our “Beloved” because He first loved us with such a love that He surrendered Himself to death for us. He is “the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me” (Gal 2:20b). When He hung on the cross, they tried to give Him “wine mixed with myrrh” (Mk 15:23). And Nicodemus brought Him after His death “a mixture of myrrh and aloes” to anoint His body (Jn 19:39).

The bride speaks of her groom as “a pouch of myrrh which lies all night between my breasts”. For us this means that the Lord Jesus in His suffering and death has a place of close proximity and intimacy in our hearts. Breasts are more often mentioned in the Bible. Like other parts of the body, they are openly spoken about, without any thought of sinful lust. The parts of the body mentioned are beautiful. They literally show God’s ‘creativity’, while we may also see a spiritual meaning in it. In the Bible breasts are a picture of spiritual maturity, of maturity in faith, through which one is able to pass on food to babies in faith.

The “breasts” (plural) also point to balance in the faith life, where we can think of faith on the one hand and love on the other. We find these two characteristics in “the breastplate of faith and love” (1Thes 5:8). The breastplate, which consists of faith and love, protects the breast, where the heart is. Paul prays for the believers in Ephesus that “Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; [and] that you, being rooted and grounded in love” (Eph 3:17). Christ dwells in our hearts and there we ponder with great gratitude His work in faith and love. We believe in this with all our heart and place our full trust in it. Through His work for us we are also convinced of His complete love for us.

Unfortunately, it can happen that we no longer treasures Him in faith and love in our hearts, so that He no longer has that place of intimacy. This is the case if we give our love to the world and the things of the world. The apostle John warns not to love the world, for if this happens, there is no part in the Father’s love (1Jn 2:15). One love excludes the other love.

In the mass of God’s people, the opposite is found of what lives in the remnant, of which the bride is a picture. God says of His adulterous people: “Let her put away her harlotry from her face and her adultery from between her breasts” (Hos 2:2b). He notices with his own what is ‘between the breasts’. What is in our hearts: love for the Lord Jesus or love for the world?

The answer to that question depends on our understanding of the words “all night” which the bride uses. The world is in the night because the Lord Jesus, the Light of the world, is not there. He is rejected by the world (Jn 1:5-10). We are in the world and therefore in the night, but it is a night that is almost gone (Rom 13:12a). “We are not of night” (1Thes 5:5b), and we may ‘let the Lord Jesus spend the night between our breasts’, that is, cherish Him as our greatest treasure. What a joy it must be for Him to be the most precious possession for His own who are in the world that has rejected Him.

A Cluster of Henna Blossoms

Again (Song 1:13) it sounds out of the bride’s mouth: “My beloved is to me …“. She now adds to the previous comparison that of “a cluster of henna blossoms”. In the previous comparison, that of a pouch of myrrh, we hear what the groom means to her heart, her inner self. The pouch of myrrh was not seen by anyone. The henna blossoms were used by Jewish girls to make a wreath of flowers and to decorate themselves with them.

Through the henna blossoms she shows others who the groom is for her. The flowers show what he is for her outwardly. They come from “the vineyards of Engedi”. Vineyards and wine represent joy (Jdg 9:13; Psa 104:15a). Engedi means ‘source of the goat’.

This verse depicts, together with the previous verse, that Christ is our ‘Beloved’ both internally and externally. We not only cherish Him in our hearts, but also visibly adorn ourselves with Him. We show in our surroundings that we are happy with Him. This will be noticeable by others in our behavior, in all our actions and words. When our heart is attuned to Him and He spends the night between our breasts like a pouch of myrrh, this must also become visible in our life.

We give expression to this joy in ‘Engedi’. It is the name of a wilderness where David fled and hid from Saul (1Sam 24:1-2). In the wilderness of this world, we may take that special place. As has already been mentioned, Engedi means ‘source of the goat’. This determines us with the work of the Lord Jesus as the sin offering. The goat is the animal of the sin offering par excellence (Lev 16:5). By becoming the sin offering, Christ worked atonement. This is also in line with a possible meaning of the word ‘henna’. It has been assumed that this word has a root that means ‘atonement’, ‘ransom’, ‘covering’.

Christ is the Source of atonement, the Source of life. He is the Source out of Whom all the things that give us joy in life in this wilderness of this world are constantly arising. If He is the Source for all things in our lives from Whom we draw what we need, we may personally say with the sons of Korah: “All my springs are in you” (Psa 87:7b). Our surroundings will perceive this in our lives, but above all it will be seen by our ‘Beloved’.

How Beautiful You Are, My Darling

The groom reacts to the expressions of the bride’s love by praising her beauty. By saying twice “how beautiful you are” he emphasizes it. Sometimes this confirmation is necessary. This also applies to our relationship with the Lord. We may say to someone: ‘You are beautiful to God as you are. He sees you in the Lord Jesus, the Beloved. In Him God has accepted you.’

The first time the groom praises the beauty of the bride to encourage her. He calls her again “my darling” (Song 1:9). The second time he says it because her “eyes are [like] doves”. He sees from her eyes, which are the mirror of the soul, that she only looks at him. Eyes indicate spiritual insight. She sees in him everything she needs.

Thus the Lord Jesus says to His disciples that they are surrounded by hostile people and therefore, among other things, they must be “innocent as doves” (Mt 10:16). Innocent has the meaning of ‘simple’, ‘unsuspecting’. The eye of the dove has only one direction of vision, it can only be focused on one thing, not on several things at the same time, because it cannot move. It indicates the firmness and determination of the gaze. That is also important for us. If we love the Lord Jesus, our eyes should not wander back and forth, but only look at Him.

The dove is a faithful bird. Often, we see two doves together. They always remain true to each other. Thus does the Lord see us, His bride. He tells us that He sees us as doves, who in their love will be faithful to Him and only want to look at Him. Even if we have to admit that our eyes so often look at other things, He knows our desire to really see no one except Him alone.

He knows we want to listen to the call “fixing our eyes on Jesus” (Heb 12:2). The word ‘fixing’ means to refrain from all other things and to keep the eye exclusively on one object. If this is found with us, if our heart goes out all alone to Him, then we are “beautiful” to Him. Our beauty to Him is determined by the direction of our eyes.

In his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul also speaks of “the simplicity … to Christ” (2Cor 11:3). He fears that the Corinthians will be led astray from this. Must it not be said of the church as a whole that this fear has proved to be justified? Her thoughts have not remained focused on Christ alone. The love toward the Lord Jesus is cooled. She has forgotten her connection with Him and has connected herself with the world. She has not remained a pure virgin. This is a great grief to the Lord Jesus.

Paul points out how that came about. It’s because the church didn’t have a good understanding of satan’s tricks, just as it was the case with Eve. Satan succeeded in turning Eve’s gaze away from God and directing it to what he proposed to her. Eve forgot what God had said and her thoughts were deceived by what the serpent said. What should she have done? Simply hold on to what God had said. If we discover that the one Object is no longer enough to our eye, because our heart goes out to other things, let us confess it and return to our first love for Him.

You Are Handsome, My Beloved

Here the bride is speaking. The bride says to the groom, in response to what he said to her in the previous verse, that he is “handsome” and also that he is “so pleasant”. Each time they tell each other what they feel and mean to each other. They speak the language of love.

What she says, is an exclamation of admiration. She is impressed by his stature, she finds him “handsome”, engaging. When she sees him, she is deeply impressed by him. He surpasses everyone, he is her “beloved”. But not only his stature enraptures her, he is also “so pleasant” in his dealings with her. In the way he approaches her and pays attention to her, he shows his respect for her. He treats her with love.

This brings her to an “indeed” and that in connection with rest. She comes to rest with him and he also with her. She doesn’t speak about ‘my’ or ‘your couch’, but about “our couch”. The place where their couch is located is “the green foliage” (which is a better rendering than ‘luxuriant’). The bride sees herself with the groom in the freedom of the green field. “Green’ speaks of freshness, of life and of peace (green is the color that gives peace to the eyes). ‘Foliage’ speaks of intimacy and seclusion, being alone with the beloved without others seeing them.

We can apply this to our love relationship as believers with the Lord Jesus. Before we knew Him, we saw “no [stately] form or majesty that we should look upon Him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him” (Isa 53:2b). But now we like to say to Him that He is beautiful, that He is our Beloved, yes, that He is so pleasant. He is impressive to us when we look at Him, when we read the Scriptures, and see Who He is and what He has done. And are we not also deeply impressed by the way He treats us?

In this relationship we have rest, while we know that the Lord Jesus also finds rest in this relationship. However, this is not an empty silence, but a rest that is fresh, in which something grows, in which life develops. It is not the rest of complacency, but of the satisfaction of a living relationship. We see that in the green foliage. When something is green, it grows. That is how it is with our love for the Lord Jesus. There is rest and growth at the same time. We are overwhelmed when we are determined by His unchanging love for us.

This is especially true when we are together as a church on Sunday. We want to worship God and the Lord Jesus and have fellowship with both of Them and remember what Christ has done for us as we celebrate the Lord’s Supper. During that meeting there may be quiet moments. Then nothing audible happens. There is no singing, no reading, no thanksgiving expressed. That can mean two things. It may be that the hearts are full of adoration for the Lord. Then nothing is said, but the Holy Spirit has been able to direct the hearts so much to the Lord Jesus and His work that there is general adoration for Him. However, it can also be the case that the hearts are empty. Then we have nothing in our hearts for the Lord Jesus. We are not in the green foliage, but in a barren place.

Whether we come with full or empty hearts has to do with our daily life during the week. If our life is truly for the Lord and we are engaged with Him, learning from Him, and spiritually nourishing ourselves with the things He shows us of Himself in His Word, then we will come with full hearts. We also have the command not to come to the meeting ‘empty-handed’, which means for us: with empty hearts (Exo 23:15; Exo 34:20; Deu 16:16).

We must all have something, not only the brothers, but also the sisters. We come together as a church. The brothers are the ones who express worship. It may be that a brother personally has nothing, but still says something, gives up a song or reads something from Scripture, or gives thanks, in which his heart is not so involved, but still expresses what is alive in the hearts of the sisters. Thus can the Lord work right through our weaknesses what is to His honor.

Cedars and Cypresses

The bride is still in the free and green field, which she compares in the verse above with “our couch”. Now she compares the trees with building material for “our houses” and “our rafters”. In the free green field, the bride sees herself surrounded by cedars. In it she recognizes beams for their houses. She sees the high cypresses as rafters that form the roof. She knows that being together with the groom has the protection and firmness of the cedars that surround her, while the cypresses are a protection against the heat of the sun.

It is remarkable that most of the woodwork in Solomon’s temple was cedar and cypress timber (1Kgs 5:8; 10). God considered these woods the most suitable for the construction of His house on earth. This reminds us that the description of the place where the bride is, speaks of God’s sanctuary and of fellowship with Him.

Wood grows out of the earth. The woods speak of Christ Who “grew up … like a root out of parched ground” (Isa 53:2) as the imperishable Man. It has been noted that cypresses were common in cemeteries in Judea. So they can be linked to death, so we can apply this to the death of Christ. What He has been in His life and death is the power of God’s house and the certainty of the future. God found His rest in the temple that was made of this wood and that is also the place where the believer finds rest.

It is also remarkable that the bride does not speak about ‘our house’, but about ‘our houses’. Therefore, the application does not only apply to God’s house, the church, but also to the houses in which we live. The church is built on Christ as the Son of the living God and came into existence by His work on the cross. In the church we may think of the death of Christ and honor Him for it. But it is also important that Christ and His work is the foundation of our homes, our marriages, and our families. He must be at the heart of it.

We may ask ourselves whether we build our houses with the same materials as those used to build God’s house. Everything in our houses that is connected with Christ and His work strengthens the building of the church as God’s houses. Everything we do or allow in our houses without Christ weakens God’s house.

Do God’s Word and prayer take the central place in our homes or are we only busy making our houses comfortable places to live in? It is God’s purpose that our houses should also be His houses, where He can have fellowship with us on the basis of the death of His Son, just as He wants to have fellowship with us in His house, the church.

The prophet Haggai speaks clear language about this to God’s earthly people (Hag 1:3-4). He tells us that we lose sight of the value of our own houses to God and make a wrong use of them if we lose sight of God’s houses. Then “our houses” become only houses of people, in which He has no place. They are no longer houses in which we have fellowship with the Lord. And that is what the bride desires and in which she is an example to us.